“Fashion fades, only style remains the same.” Coco Chanel

Alexander McQueen leaves £16 million to charity and his dogs

A man after my own heart, it seems that Alexander McQueen has left £50,000 of his £16,036,500 million fortune to his dogs.

Noting that they be cared for and well-looked after for the rest of their lives Lee, (as he was known to friends) had also motioned for £100,000 to be given to each of the following charities; Battersea Dogs and Cats Home and the Blue Cross sick animal centre. The same amount will also be distributed to The Terrence Higgins Trust and the London Buddhist Centre, showing his love for charity and for animals alike.

McQueen, aged only 40 when he died last year, hung himself after the loss of his mother and struggling with depression and the pressures of work, leading to his untimely death.

Although the majority of his money will go to charity McQueen also left a substantial amount to his siblings which included £250,000 each, and a further £50,00 each to his godson and nieces and nephews. The remainder of his estate has been left to the Sarabande charity, with which McQueen’s spring/summer 2007 collection shares a name. He also asked that this money be used to fund bursaries and grants to students at Central St Martin’s College of Art and Design, in London, where McQueen studied fashion.

An influential designer throughout the world McQueen’s fashion shows always bordered on fanatical displays with exquisite designs, culminating in him never being able to see the triumphs his fashion house had achieved earlier this year when Sarah Burton designed Catherine Middleton’s wedding dress. A true tragedy indeed.